


Alone

by welcomehcme



Category: Bandstand - Oberacker/Oberacker & Taylor
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-05-03 00:09:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14556591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/welcomehcme/pseuds/welcomehcme
Summary: It wasn't quite the same, no, but the similarity was so uncanny that Julia could have swore for a moment that Donny was, in fact, Michael.





	Alone

Julia Trojan rolls around in her sleep at night. She toss this way and that; left and right and left and right. It's almost like a pattern, like a game her body likes to play in her sleep without her permission. She'll wake up in the mornings with sheets tangled around her, and half of her body hanging off the bed.

It never used to be like that, but then again, a lot changed between past and present. Julia now didn't have a warm body pressed against hers and an arm hooked around her waist to keep her tight in place. She now didn't have a heartbeat that echoed in her ears against the rise and fall of her pillow's chest. She didn't wake up to sunlight streaming through her curtains and a pair of lips pressing themselves to the top of her bed head. That had been sucked away from her with the war.

She thought it was all gone. The wake-up affection, the constant kissing, the reassurance that they would never be separated. Life was more fragile than that. Julia knew that first hand.

But now, as Julia turned over in bed and let her head rest against a new pillow, she heard a similar steady heartbeat. It made her smile. It wasn't quite the same, no, but the similarity was so uncanny that Julia could have swore for a moment that Donny was, in fact, Michael.

But upon looking up to see her lover, she didn't find those bright blue eyes that always pierced through her. She found a pair of brown eyes hidden behind eyelids, and tousled black locks, all fighting for which direction they wanted to stick up in.

It was moments like these in which Julia remembered why she wanted Donny in the first place. 

Donny had came to her as a surprise. A knock on her door while Julia helped her mother with that night's dinner. Julia was met with an empty door, a man walking along the sidewalks, not to far from her house. Old Julia might have let it be, instead opting to go off on a rant to Michael about how immature people were these days. 

But new Julia instead called out to him. She didn't know her life would change drastically that day. Neither did Donny. 

To call Julia's relationship with Donny the same as her relationship with Michael was a long stretch. They weren't alike, not in the slighest. 

At a glance they may seem so. Two buffer guys, devilishly handsome, and musically talented. But it went so much deeper than that for Julia. She wasn't shallow. 

Julia never held Michael during a nightmare. Michael's never had to deal with flashbacks of war, and looking into the eyes of the girl he made a widow. He's never had to think that he's unloveable because he hurt so many. But Donny has to deal with all of this every single day, and he's learned to depend on Julia to help him. She always pulls through for him. 

It's not easy to listen to Donny speak about what happened, but most of what came from Julia and Donny's relationship wasn't easy. Michael's memory is like a wall that stands between them, and they can only find it in themsleves to crack it, tiny bits at a time. 

This tiny crack in that wall was waking up in the same bed together. Donny's eyes opened slowly, catching Julia watching him sleep. The same smile stuck to her face was duplicated by him, and he dared go in for the first kiss of the day. 

Julia knew it wouldn't be his last. What more could she ask for?


End file.
